The transaction could be expanded to 74 billion US dollars if there was heavy demand, the state-run company said. The cash serves as the core of an ambitious plan Petrobras has already outlined to boost capital expenditure over the next five years to 224 billion US dollars as it seeks to tap potentially vast oil reserves discovered recently off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.

The company will offer 1.59 billion new preferred shares (PETR4.SA) and 2.17 billion new common shares (PETR3.SA), Petrobras said in a statement published in Valor Economico newspaper on Friday. (Reporting by Elzio Barreto) ($1=1.73 reais).

=================
=================

Now then…….. About halfway through the AFP article, there’s this: “But to get at the black stuff, Petrobras will have to overcome a series of costly technological challenges unprecedented in the oil industry. The company, a world leader in deepwater oil exploration, is confident it will be able to do so.”

No other article about the stock sale I found except the AFP releases even hints at where this ‘$64+ Billion for exploration’ will be spent.

Deep water experts, eh ?

To use the vernacular, I ‘did some digging’ into the recent past……. It’s not deepwater drilling they’re doing – it’s called ‘Ultra-Deepwater Drilling’ – at least 7,500 ft of ocean and mostly much deeper where Petrobras is going to drill. Waaaaay down deeper than the Deepwater Horizon of “evil capitalists killed the Gulf” fame.